Yankees pitcher Jordan Montgomery injures throwing elbow, leaves Tuesday's win

HOUSTON -- After throwing just seven pitches, New York Yankees starter Jordan Montgomery left Tuesday night's 4-0 win against theAstros with an injury to his throwing elbow.

"Monty's in a pretty good frame of mind," Yankees skipper Aaron Boone said after the game.

Boone said he is hopeful the injury isn't significant.

Montgomery said after the game that his concern over his injury is "not very high" and he's hoping to miss just one start.

The Yankees announced that Montgomery would return to New York on Wednesday, where he will be evaluated by Dr. Chris Ahmad.

Montgomery was officially diagnosed with left elbow tightness. He could be seen during his lone inning of action flexing his left arm as if experiencing some discomfort.Asked to describe exactly where he was injured, he pointed to an area of muscle just below his elbow on the back of his arm.

The problem had been nagging Montgomery over the past two days, but the lefty thought he could "kind of throw through it" as he underwent additional exercises and extra treatment. He said he has had forearm tightness in the past, but he wasn't sure if this was the exact same location as those injuries.

"No need to keep throwing through something like this when maybe it can be a quick fix," Montgomery said. "[But] it's not like I'm hurting really that bad. Just kind of enough to be there and kind of scare you a little bit."

In his seven pitches, Montgomery retired the Astros in order to start the game. He got George Springer to fly out to right, Jose Altuve to ground out to third and Carlos Correa to fly out to center fielder Aaron Hicks.

"Yeah, that's probably been the best inning I've had this year," Montgomery said, laughing.

He said he knew something was wrong with the way his arm felt on about every other pitch. He also was tipped off when the velocity on his fastball hovered in the upper 80s; only once did it touch 90 mph.

"I was kind of laying off it a little bit, and you never want to do that," Montgomery said.

Montgomery entered the start with a 2-0 record and a 3.76 ERA.

Boone said after the game that Domingo German, who replaced Montgomery in the second inning on Tuesday, would probably take over for Montgomery in the rotation for Sunday.

German, 25, worked four innings, striking out four while keeping pace in a scoreless tie with dominant Houston veteran aceJustin Verlander, who had 14 strikeouts across eight innings.